


Still Life with Cat

by Zeke Black (istia)



Category: The Magnificent Seven (TV)
Genre: M/M, Old West, POV Chris Larabee, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-15
Updated: 2018-01-15
Packaged: 2019-03-05 09:46:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13385229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/istia/pseuds/Zeke%20Black
Summary: Chris and Ezra arrive home.





	Still Life with Cat

The air was dust-dry and bitter as aloes on his tongue. He took a sip of tepid, brackish water from his canteen, swirled it around in his mouth, then turned his head to the right and spat it onto the ground. Ignoring Ezra's irritated grunt on his left, he tipped his head back and took a long, satisfying drink.

They were almost home. No need to hoard their water. The day was becoming as shiny bright as the sun above.

Though you couldn't guess it from looking at Ezra. Chris grinned at the dust-grayed apparition at his side that had slowly, over these past few hours of their return journey to Four Corners from Eagle Bend, replaced the natty, colorful figure who'd been his original riding companion.

His grin transformed into heated focus that eventually caught Ezra's attention. Which is to say that Ezra had undoubtedly been aware of his stare from the start, but ignored it in typical fashion until he finally ran out of patience.

"What the blazing hell are you staring at?" Ezra freed a hand from his reins to swat at his clothes with futile impatience, managing nothing more than raising enough dust to give him a coughing fit.

His chestnut gelding, as persnickety as Ezra, shook his head vigorously in protest, raising a cloud of dust of his own in Ezra's face, and gave a disgruntled neigh.

Chris laughed. Life was definitely becoming brighter by the moment.

"Oh, just contemplating." He spoke in a lazy drawl he knew would get under Ezra's (currently dirt-streaked) skin and didn't shift his gaze from Ezra's profile.

"Contemplating? What on earth could you be contemplating that's so apparently fascinating in our present unlovely circumstances?"

Chris grinned again, but it was warmer, sweeter. He pitched his voice low. "You. In the yard out front of the shack. Stripping off them filthy clothes and dropping them at your feet one piece at a time. That fiery sun up there playing over your bare chest, making shadows and dips of your back muscles as you sluice water over yourself from the pump. Your ass tightening as you bend over to plunge your head under the water and the way your body shivers all over at the chill."

He dropped his voice to a raw, husky whisper:

"Me. Getting out of my own shirt and pants before throwing you a towel to dry your face and hair while I use another one to stroke away all them water droplets trailing down your shoulders and your chest and your belly before I slide my arms around you to rub the lingering drops from your back." He deepened his smile. "And your ass."

Ezra's eyes, fixed on his, looked twice their ordinary size, which was saying a good deal considering how big they were normally, though they were more black pupil at the moment than green iris. Ezra licked his lips as a hint of red stained his cheeks.

"Good lord," he said faintly, his accent deepened. "I had no idea you lived with such a rich fantasy life. It's astonishing what goes on behind that taciturn demeanor of yours when folks would swear you never think beyond your horse, your gun, your cigarillos, and that disgusting rotgut."

Chris let his smile turn predatory. "Oh, it ain't fantasy, Ezra. It's just a glance into the future."

As they made the final turn on the trail and home came into view, his horse whinnied and picked up his gait. Ezra's gelding followed suit. The shack, barn, and corrals were drenched in a golden, late-afternoon glow they rode into and became part of.

"Very near future, as it happens."

The tiny black cat that had turned up one day out of the blue--though Chris was pretty damned sure Ezra'd had a hand in her arrival, despite his sniffy denials--and made herself at home, growing sleek on mice and pushy as Ezra himself when it came to demanding a spot by the fire and choice bits of meat from the supper pot, came out of the barn to watch their arrival. Though she made sure her general disinterest was clear by watching them between washes of her face and a gigantic yawn.

As Ezra dismounted, dust like a shower of gold flakes embraced him and Chris swallowed at a sudden lump in his throat. Their eyes met like the clash of bayonets at dawn, and Chris wondered if his own were as nakedly intent.

Then Ezra broke the spell between them, his dimples flashing into view as he tossed his reins to Chris.

"Well, we wouldn't want to make a liar out of you, now, would we?"

Still holding Chris's eyes, Ezra pushed his purple jacket slowly off his shoulders and down his arms before letting it drop to the ground. He lifted his hands to the buttons of his silver brocade vest. His eyes were crinkled with devilish humor, but the heat his sun-washed body exuded wasn't near all coming from the air.

Speaking of which, the air seemed to be getting thinner as Chris's breathing quickened.

Then Cat strolled over to the porch, stretching sinuously before demanding in a loud mew that the door be opened right this goldarned instant.

Chris laughed as Ezra flashed a frown at the creature before rolling his eyes. Ezra, however, obediently stepped onto the porch to unlatch the door while pointing out, in a grumble Cat entirely ignored, that the window they'd left open for her convenience was still open, yadda yadda.

When Chris left the corral after settling their horses, Ezra was stripped down to bare chest and feet and was unbuttoning his pants.

Ezra paused to flash both dimples and gold tooth at him with a sultry set to his mouth. "This fantasy of yours seems to be missing towels."

Chris stepped over Cat washing herself smack in the middle of the doorway on his way inside and out again with the required towels. Ezra was sluicing off his dusty chest, droplets quivering on his broad shoulders and strong arms like a dusting of diamonds. His smile sent a flame of heat into Chris's suddenly too-tight pants.

And just like that, the near future became the present.


End file.
